So as promised, I have a lotta thoughts about Baldur's Gate 3. Many of them quite rambly. I am going to preface this by saying that I have no prior experience with Larian games nor with the Baldur's Gate property. I am simply a nerd specifically interested in BioWare RPGs and D&D

For thought organization, I'm going to sort out the rambling by subject. Starting with character creation, moving onto gameplay/story, and lastly companions because I have a lot of thoughts when it comes to them and how divergent they are from my idea of typical RPG Companions

I feel like a lot has already been said about the character creation system. As it is it's definitely not bad, though I wish that there were some sliders to adjust bits of the face (eyes, nose, lips, etc) just to fine tune them. I feel like there aren't quite enough diverse +

-face options for each race. High and half elves all have very caucasian features, which makes giving them dark skin look a little sketchy. Though there are textured hair options for all the races I've poked at so far, which is a very pleasant surprise

The class customization is quite delightful and I love that you could theoretically use BG3's creation to plan out an actual level 1 5e character. Being able to choose which spells I have access to is very satisfying and makes every character super unique

I'd be fascinated to see if later on in the game (since Early Access is only up to *maybe* level 5) your class and background impact your story at all. Being a Warlock with a Patron generally means in a tabletop game of D&D that you're gonna have to face what that means

Which is a great segue into talking about gameplay and the story!

I am generally terrible at tactic based gameplay, and I have to confess, as soon as I see things going poorly for me, I reload my save to avoid the headaches of waiting for death.

I think this is the largest departure from D&D, in which everything you do has permanent consequences, but as it's been converted into a video game space it makes perfect sense. I feel there'd be a great deal of anger if you couldn't fix your mistakes

And mistakes I have made many of! Some are a result of the game's logic not being presented in enough detail for me to catch on. Specifically the final battle on the Illithid ship, where part of me knows that there's no way the game wants me to fight this high level baddie+

-but also wait what am I doing? There's some moments like that. I don't know how much of it is Early Access still smoothing things out or if I'm just inept.

The game gives you so many paths to take as you head towards the end goal of getting an Illithid tadpole out of your head

Every NPC can be talked to and a lot of them have their own conflicts that you can stick your nose in. I think my favorite was helping a tiefling bard on a cliffside finish writing a song and being treated to a performance

Interacting with NPCs can lead to rolling skill checks in much the same way as you would if you were playing an actual game of D&D. Deception and Persuasion checks can help you avoid combat situations where you might get easily overwhelmed. Or you might make a fool of yourself

These checks really speak to D&D's "You can certainly try" moto. There is no guarantee that you will succeed a skill check, even on Passive checks, because as far as I can tell the numbers that the ingame d20 rolls are random, as it would be IRL

I'm at a place in my concurrent playthroughs where I've fallen into a habit of reloading in order to see what might happen if I roll poorly or if I succeed, or if I go for an alternate skill check all together. It has so far led to a great deal of entertainment!

Though I still generally try to make the choices that are the most moral/compassionate/helpful to the NPCs.

Which is where I'll get into the story and companions a little bit more.

Baldur's Gate 3 is very much a video game version of D&D 5e

But it is also a Murder Hobo Simulator

At least, that's what it seems to want you to do

Let me explain

General Spoiler Warning for the rest of this thread
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The game starts out with you trapped in a containment apparatus on an Illithid ship, while a mind flayer infects you with a "tadpole" that is shown in very gruesome, eye trauma detail that is *so* disturbing

This tadpole is a parasite that will eventually transform you into a mind flayer through an explicitly detailed process known as ceremorphosis. So obviously, you don't want it in your head!

Your goal from the game's first moments is to survive and find someone who can cure you of this parasitic infection. Fortunately, the tadpole is abnormal enough that it has blessed you and all of your companions (who were also on the ship) with a concerning lack of symptoms

No peeling skin, no tentacles bursting from your face. Just a few extra abilities that can be used to influence others who are infected with the same parasite. But just because you seem to be fine, doesn't mean that you should become complacent. And this is where it starts

Every one of your companions is out to save their own skin, understandably. You've been brought together by a common goal, though you've been made something of a de facto leader. They let you make the decisions, though it never seems as though they want you to

Early in the game, one of your first leads towards finding a healer who can cure you of your infection is the head druid of a nearby grove. This grove happens to be filled with tiefling refugees, and if you even *think* about helping them, your companions WILL disapprove

The game seems to attempt to make helping them a morally grey decision because they are tieflings. Tieflings have devil blood in them, leading to their tell-tale appearances of horns and pointy tails; however, tieflings are generally well loved in the online D&D sphere

I don't know anyone who holds any contempt for tieflings. Most folks seem to play them as charming queers, fitting their Charisma bonuses and unusual circumstances. And the tieflings BG3 are just as charming! (see the aforementioned bard for example)

The game shows you that these NPCs are desperate folks trying to survive, most of them average as anything else. That much is clear just by having chats with the random characters standing around fretting over what the druids are planning on doing to them if they overstay their+

-welcome. There is some force within the writing that wants you to help these people, even though you and all of your companions have a completely unrelated end goal.

But if you help them, you will be instantly punished with that most dreaded thing

Companion Disapproval

This is where having mostly only played BioWare RPGs and some MMOs, along with being a pretty moral person, throws me under the bus. Because my instinct is to be compassionate! These people need help! I already need to save this druid, what's killing some goblins along the way!?

Apparently, a horrible inconvenience! Out of the five companions, three of them will be horribly annoyed by your decision to give these strangers aid. One will be on the fence. And only a single companion will urge you towards selflessness

This conflict is absolutely fascinating, in a way. Your companions react like real people to the situation they've found themselves in, even if they lean towards apathy or cruelty. They are also *really* difficult to get to know.

You know none of your companions from before you were thrown together by happenstance. You are joined in a single goal: find a way to get the tadpole out of your head. Whatever else you happen upon along the way does not matter compared to that goal

The only thing that your companions seem to universally approve of?

Giving this dog pets. Which, okay fair enough

At first this really threw me off, especially because this early into the game it is possible to have romance scenes after having defeated the leaders of the goblin camp. Which is an event that none of them were ever compelled to participate in, instead having had to be dragged+

-into it by the player character.

And then I recalled my first run playing Knights of The Old Republic

In KOTOR, you and several of your companions are also thrown together by circumstance. You need aid in getting off the planet, and the first character you have by your side is Carth Onasi. Carth is, initially, extremely prickly and untrusting towards your character.

He can shut down if you pry into his backstory too quickly, deflect the conversation, and is generally hostile due to the fact that he doesn't trust you yet.

I am hopeful that over the course of the full game, BG3's companions will become comfortable enough to open up

I can already see the seeds they've planted for allowing the player character to form meaningful relationships with their companions and their evolutions. And I am dying to get my hands on that content

But as it is, the hostility is overwhelming and their judgement is oppressive

I am, of course, bearing in mind that this is Early Access, even though there is such a mountain of content within that I still have yet to touch despite my nearly 40 hours of playing this game.

If I had any criticism to give, I'd say that the romance scenes shouldn't be here

That is, not so soon. Not while the companions are still so hostile and standing there judging me for trying to do the right thing. Because there was little more dejecting than triggering the night with Shadowheart, only for her to tell me how badly she wants to forget about it